Tag: GE

It seems as though achieving a healthy work-life balance in today’s society is unattainable. Finding harmony between a demanding work schedule and a role as a mother, or juggling classwork, a social life and sleep as a student is exhausting. As highly motivated women with many goals, it is easy to feel overwhelmed.

Meet Cara Gontarz Hume, one of our fellow female Crusaders, who has created a balance between her career and family that works for her. Hume is the Senior Human Resources Leader for General Electric Finance and has three children all under the age of five-years-old. With an executive career and three young kids, she asks herself a question that many struggle with, “Can I still work and be a great mom?” For Hume, the answer is yes. She has managed to be present as a mother while simultaneously progressing her career. She remembers going on maternity leave for the first time and how worrisome it was balancing her career with the vision of what it means to be a mom. However, when she sat down with her manager and explained her situation, he gave her the life changing advice of, “just leave early.” In that moment, Hume discovered that the keys to balancing her home life with her work life were setting priorities and not keeping her two lives separate from each other.

Hume recalls the once defined line between work and personal life: “I was taught, you keep work at work and home at home.” However, throughout her career, she has seen a change in this attitude to which she attributes much of her success. She explains that she brings her full self to work not hiding that she is a working mother with three young kids. She explains, “I will be there and deliver but I do carve out time for kids. I do not use them as an excuse or a limiting factor, just part of who I am.”

As a student at Holy Cross, she was able to develop her time management skills. Like many students on the Hill, she managed a schedule of rigorous courses, a competitive athletic schedule and a variety of other campus activities. The ingrained concept of Cura Personalis, or “care of the whole person,” is a mentality promoted at Holy Cross that has contributed to much of her success. Hume says she draws upon these ideas of caring for the mind, body, and soul as a foundation of her whole-self resulting in a better self.

Multiple priorities are hard to balance and this difficulty will never go away. Hume emphasizes the importance of setting parameters around prioritizing personal time. She says, “If you don’t set a framework for personal time you will burn out. And no one will set it for you.” Everyone has their own tips and tricks on how to balance commitments, but what has worked for Hume is making a habit of taking personal time. She advises, “Make an actual plan. Mark it on your calendar and block it off.” Mark off family dinner or gym time. Put drinks with friends in your calendar and stick with the designated schedule. Having personal time marked into the calendar will make it part of your routine, making it harder to let your personal time go by the way side. Additionally, she warns, “Don’t bite off more than you can chew and avoid the extremes.” Hume also recommends constantly turning inward for personal assessments. Nobody’s fulfillment plan will be the same so it is important to check in with yourself to make sure you are happy with the way life is going.

With the school year starting up soon and new projects beginning at work, try using Hume’s trick and mark your calendar with consistent “me time” to care for yourself. Happy balancing!

Miss the annual Women in Business conference? No worries! Read a review of the 2017 Women in Business conference, written by committee members Sarah Anderson ’20 and Kate Beckerman ’20. Special THANK YOU to Provost Freije for interviewing Deirdre Latour ’95, Senior Advisor, VP & COO at GE.

As a student at College of the Holy Cross, homework, sports practice, club meetings and the job search can be overwhelming. How can a student at Holy Cross possibly manage to build their network while also meeting deadlines?

Every November, the Women in Business Committee brings upwards of 200 student and alumnae together to meet, chat about life on the Hill and learn about life in the real world in Hogan Ballroom. The all day event includes FOOD, FUN and NETWORKING! What more could you want from a Saturday on the Hill? The alumnae that travel back to their alma mater are here to talk with student, dish out great advice and if you’re lucky, hand you their business cards for the next time you’re in their area.

This year on Saturday, November 11, Chief Communications Officer of GE, Deirdre Latour is coming to talk about her life at Holy Cross as a History major and how she became the awesome, powerful, inspiring woman she is today! Check out the agenda, panels and alumnae on the website. Be sure to register while you are there!

This year’s sponsors include: GE, PepsiCo, Deloitte and Eaton Vance. In addition to sponsoring this incredible event, GE and PepsiCo will also be sending alumnae representatives to the college to have recruiting lunches. This of course is by application ONLY, so be sure to get your resumes in early to have a little extra face to face time with these two fantastic companies! How do you apply? 1) Register for the conference 2) Send your resume to prebusiness@holycross.edu

If you’re missing out on the Women in Business Conference, your missing out on networking with some of the most fun, charismatic and passionate women in the world of business. Be sure to register for your spot now!

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Thank you to Casey Carty ’18, WIB Student Committee Member, for this great write up. Hope to see you at the conference on Saturday, November 11, 2017! #HCWIB #HCWomeninBiz

Week four began our quest to obtain a victory on Friday after all the trials and tribulations of the Summer Business Program. The stress and anxiety set in early when trying to perfect our presentation. Every bullet, every sentence, and every movement had to be rehearsed and scripted. The PowerPoint needed to be clear and concise to get our ideas across. Most importantly we needed to look and sound our best in order to be the epitome of a real business presentation: professional.

The week began with a session on career planning. Taught by Pam Ahearn and Amy Murphy, we learned the nuisances of navigating the Holy Cross website and LinkedIn to find alumni not only for internships and jobs, but also for informational interviews.

The Holy Cross network is a phenomenal resource that I will continue to tap into during my last two years at HC, and even after graduation. I still don’t know what I want to do with my life after college, but I have a strategy to piece together my varying interests. By taking advantage of everything Holy Cross has to offer: the academic internship program, study abroad, ELW, SBP, etc, I can gain a better understanding of my likes and dislikes.

During my journey, I know that the network is always there for me to ask questions. The most important take away from the session was that alumni want to help, so I should never hesitate to contact them. After Monday, my two primary summer priorities became networking and setting up my LinkedIn profile.

As the week went on we were taught how to use Microsoft Office tools such as PowerPoint and Excel. Wednesday’s session on PowerPoint and presentation skills with Jessica Blau’08 and Roger Lobo ‘04 provided pertinent information to incorporate into the pitch.

During the session, we learned about tips and tricks for PowerPoint, verbal delivery, and slide content. My team took this new knowledge and touched up our presentation before we asked Ms. Blau to film our first dry run. I always hate watching myself on film, but the team and I discovered a lot from watching ourselves. We were able to see areas in which we could improve and mistakes that needed to be corrected by Friday. Thursday was the day to make those corrections.

When Mr. Correia told us that Thursday meant perfection, he wasn’t kidding. The team had no idea what to expect at 10 a.m. for the start of our meeting in Smith 155. We began with sharing all of the new information we had learned in our sessions, in addition to our perfected PowerPoint. From there, we jumped right into the dry runs. Every movement and sentence was scrutinized. People forgot lines, swayed in place, stepped forward wrong etc. Each time we made a mistake Mr. Correia would say, “Do it again.”

After a few tries, we got the hang of it. All that remained was being able to control our nerves the next morning and remember the transitions. We were confident in the content of our presentation and our ability to pitch the information. We simply needed to execute.

At 2 p.m., Mr. Correia had to go talk to the parents at Gateways. His wife couldn’t make it, so he needed someone from the team to go with him. I volunteered to talk to the parents with the mentality that I’d be sitting on a panel answering questions. Oh how wrong I was. It turned out that I had to speak in front of an almost full ballroom of parents with no preparation. I was terrified, but it was a great public speaking experience. I told my story and explained how the parents should let their children grow up, but still be involved in their lives for support and advice.

After my near heart attack, the team reconvened and decided to go practice separately for tomorrow. We had rehearsed so much that we needed a break to get our heads on straight. Mr. Correia left us to work by our own accord, and trusted us to be ready for game time, 10 a.m. Friday morning.

We were as ready as we’d ever be.

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I can’t wait to find out how they did! Thanks again, Frank!

As always, don’t forget to “Like” us on FACEBOOK and look for our WIB, SBP and ELW groups on LinkedIN!

Quinn Korzeniecki is a senior English major with a Pre-Business concentration. She is editor-in-chief of The Advocate, a progressive online publication at Holy Cross, and works as an assistant in the Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Office. As a participant in the Summer Business Program, she hopes to learn more about marketing and advertising aspects of business. Quinn aspires to enter into publishing either in the editorial, marketing, or advertising departments.

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Wow, how quickly time passes when you’re learning about the different aspects of business!

As I said at the end of my last post, on Wednesday we learned about what it means to work in the financial sect of the business world as a venture capitalist and how to choose the best way to fund a new business. We learned about Warren Buffett’s amazing work as one of the most successful venture capitalists in his company, Berkshire Hathaway. As a member of a venture firm, one must value companies based on their profitability, growth, and risk. I learned a term I never heard of before: EBITDA, which means “earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization.” Tom Flynn instructed us to throw that term into a financial interview to clinch the position. In the end of the session we were sent off into our groups and assigned the task of picking which company we would buy stock in, either Facebook or Google. Although I am obsessed with social networking, my group ultimately picked Google because a new social networking site will probably enter the spotlight within the next year or so and make Facebook obsolete.

Two former football playing Holy Cross alumni came in on Thursday to speak about marketing and sales. Peter George, the CEO of Fidelis Security Systems, spoke about the qualities of a successful salesperson. He filled us in on SPIN, or the science of selling, which is a four step way to assure that you are maximizing your potential as a salesperson. Since I am competitive, smart, hard-working, and a team player, I could definitely see myself going into this field of business! Terry Waters, the CEO of the Yankee Group, taught us about B2B (Business to Business) marketing, through which companies sell products and services to other businesses that in turn sell them to the consumer. The best marketing departments have board commitment, knowledge of the target market, and have a clear, quantified, focused, realistic, and resourced marketing plan. All companies want to have a combination of vision and ability to execute, and those that fall short either run out of money and need to ask for more debt or equity or fail. It’s survival of the fittest in America these days!

On Friday, Ian Dowe, another football alumnus came to Smith Labs 155 to speak with us about advertising. This workshop was completely different from the previous ones: we were asked to bring in magazines and links to advertisements on Youtube and used these ads to learn what runs through the minds of those working in an advertising firm when they are creating one of these promotions. After analyzing a nail polish ad in which a woman’s fingernails matched the eyes of a tiger and wore a large diamond ring, I realized that advertisements do indeed play into our wants and desires: we all want to be more desirable, and advertisers play into this to get you to buy their product. We broke into our groups with the task of advertising a product: my group created a new product, the “Shrup,” or shrinkable and portable cup. It was interesting to learn about the thought that goes into advertisements and it was even more beneficial to advertise for a product ourselves.

After a weekend of relaxation, shopping in Providence, and more relaxation, we got back to the grind. Monday morning we received a brief introduction to microeconomics with Professor Cahill. We learned about making decisions based on weighing opportunity costs. In our teams, we competed against each other making deals that served as examples of imperfect competition: a lot of friendships were broken by cheating team members, but they made amends in the next round when we made bids on bonds. Some ended up winning by a large margin to keep the peace (but I don’t think that’s how it would work in the real world). In the afternoon we learned about business organizations ranging from sole proprietorships to corporations. All in all, the past four days were a great success, and I look forward to learning how to use Microsoft Excel in the business world.

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Thanks, Quinn! If you have any questions about SBP, please email us at prebusiness@holycross.edu. Don’t forget to find us on facebook!

Kaithlyn

Our guest blogger, Quinn, is back with more from SBP. I’ve asked her to share a brief bio this week as well. ENJOY!

Quinn Korzeniecki is a senior English major with a Pre-Business concentration. She is editor-in-chief of The Advocate, a progressive online publication at Holy Cross, and works as an assistant in the Vice President and Dean of Academic Affairs Office. As a participant in the Summer Business Program, she hopes to learn more about marketing and advertising aspects of business. Quinn aspires to enter into publishing either in the editorial, marketing, or advertising departments.

On Friday, we learned about something for which my dad would be very proud of me if I could only accomplish it: personal finance, investments, and mutual funds. Professor Anderton taught us all about the similarities and differences between stocks and bonds. He stressed the importance of setting up a financial plan to control spending after graduation. Also, we discussed how profitable long-term investments can be especially if we start at our young age. Because of this workshop, I plan on saving the first significant amount of spare cash that I earn, investing it in stocks, and praying that in 50 years it will amount to 5 million dollars like it did for Susan Smith in the example. Hey, a girl can dream.

Along the same lines of personal finance, Professor Chu lead Monday’s workshop on accounting. We learned more about the individual shareholder’s piece of profit from stocks in the company. In the afternoon we learned about the terminology needed to understand the business world in general: one of the most interesting things I learned was that companies are obliged to report risk factors to the Security Exchange Commission. Therefore, when we had to list the cons of investing in the insulin pump company Insulet we realized that a natural disaster like the tornadoes that recently tore through Massachusetts could demolish the company’s only storage warehouse. Yet, sometimes the future benefits outweigh the present risks, and my group ultimately decided that we would invest in Insulet.

Monday night we enjoyed a banquet-style dinner and discussion with Peter Mondani, VP of Human Resources for General Electric, who taught us about business models, personal branding, and careers. We learned that it is best to “influence without authority” by changing the opinions and viewpoints of others although you’re not in an authority position. Exude confidence but admit to making mistakes and learn from them. Also, apparently we women get red necks during interviews when we get nervous. I guess I’m “investing” in a scarf for my quickly approaching job interviews!

Tuesday afternoon focused on the job/internship search and networking. I found this particularly helpful since I’m entering my senior year and feel helpless in planning for the real world. I learned the best way to reach out to alumni and maintain informal and beneficial relationships. All in all, I’ve learned how to balance my personal finances, invest in stocks and bonds, and plan for attaining my first full-time job.

Wednesday we learn about what it means to work in finance: don’t let the English major fool you, I also enjoy math!